‘Grantchester’ returns to ‘Masterpiece’; ‘Beecham House’ premieres
PBS’s “Masterpiece” begins its summer season this weekend with two premieres while Hulu debuts a new animated comedy, “Crossing Swords.” And PBS airs the fascinating story of a woman who recorded TV programs 24 hours a day for more than 30 years.
‘Masterpiece’
PBS drama series “Masterpiece” brings back fan favorite “Grantchester” (9 p.m. Sunday, WQED-TV) with its new priest character, Will Davenport (Tom Brittney), fully settled into his new role as vicar of Grantchester, which continues to see its fair share of murders that the good vicar helps Inspector Geordie Keating (Robson Green) solve like a 1950s-era Father Dowling.
“Grantchester” begins its fifth season with the murder of a college co-ed — she’s discovered floating in a lake — and will continue airing episodes weekly through July 19.
It’s joined by PBS’s latest deadon-arrival British import. Following in the disappointing footsteps of “Sanditon,” also canceled by its British network before airing stateside, the new “Beecham House” (10 p.m. Sundays through July 19) lasted just one season on ITV before it was canceled in October.
With a 1795 Delhi setting, it’s an
Indian “Downton Abbey” with a dashing, “Poldark”-esque lead.
The premiere introduces mysterious John Beecham (Tom Bateman, “DaVinci’s Demons”), a rugged, former East India Company soldier who arrives in Delhi with a baby in tow, upsetting the servants who, like viewers, are desperate to know what happened to the baby’s mother.
When the show focuses on Beecham and his staff, it’s not terrible. But when it ventures off the grounds of Beecham’s ornate estate, things go sideways.
‘Crossing Swords’
The notion of an adult animated series starring 1970s-era Fisher-Price
Little People — those round, armless, wooden, proto-action figures — promises some inherent comedic appeal, but the execution of Hulu’s “Crossing Swords” doesn’t live up to the potential.
Set in generic medieval times, “Swords,” streaming Friday, follows wannabe squire Patrick (voice of Nicholas Hoult, “The Great”), who lands his dream job only to learn the castle is full of creeps.
Created by “Robot Chicken” veterans John Harvatine and Tom Root, “Swords” is occasionally funny but more often settles for outrageous — a Little People figure swearing and showing off his private parts! — which grows tiresome and dull in repetition.
‘Independent Lens: Recorder’
PBS’s “Independent Lens” debuts “Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project” (10 p.m. Monday, WQED-TV), a captivating 90-minute documentary about a Philadelphia woman who recorded TV programs, particularly news broadcasts, on 70,000 VHS tapes 24 hours a day from the late 1970s until her death in 2012.
The film by Matt Wolf (“Spaceship Earth”) explores why Stokes was so intent on documenting media coverage: Was it a hoarding obsession or something more? The way Wolf puts “Recorder” together, it certainly suggests the latter, with particular relevance in light of protests over police brutality.
Channel surfing
After this week, “Jeopardy!” will have exhausted its original episodes filmed before the pandemic shutdown. … WPNT will air virtual graduations for South Park School District (8 p.m.) and Elizabeth Forward (8:30 p.m.) on June 16; for “PA Distance Cyber Charter School” (8 p.m.) and Pine-Richland (8:30 p.m.) on June 17 and for Hampton (8 p.m.) on June 18.